REFLECTS ON TFD IN GHANA
After my exploration into the genre of TFD evaluation in Ghana, I have encountered many challenges that have made the work interesting and worthwhile. Most of these problems that faced me I tried and managed to surmount, not without costs though. Some have only been at great expense. There are a host of other problems that were not immediate to my concerns and hence did not pose immediate threat. In this section, I intend to make bear some of the problems encountered with the view that this will serve as a useful base to make my recommendations and suggestions.
The problems I faced can be divided into two broad areas: financial and documentational. The journey into the communities that were so widely spaced was at great expense. The costs threatened to get higher for good work to be achieved, and I certainly ensured that the good work was achieved within bearable costs.
The lack of funding that the project suffered was partly due to the nature of the research and partly because the bureaucracy that this exercise demanded required me to be out of the communities on follow up to procure the funds. I secured sponsorship from personal, family and friends and thus could keep the faith with the communities. The journey required good medical and physical conditioning. Logistically I had to master the art of photography. The inadequate funds denied the project the opportunity of shooting a video documentary. It still managed however to capture some wonderful moments in still-shots. The use of an interpreter, guide, and cultural advisor was equally expensive.
Besides the issue of funds the other obstacle I faced was the lack of a near accurate documentation of some of the field peculiarities. The evaluation exercise requires that the communities status ante be known so comparison can be done with the status quo. The establishment of the situation should traverse the vague picture and be more sociological with statistics and figures where need be. This requires the setting up of indicators or the codification of the status ante. This is admittedly lacking in most TFD reports that remained on the rather vague level. Without these indicators it is almost impossible to measure (although not very scientifically) the subtle, minute and slight changes especially after a long while by a different facilitator.
The poor documentation of reports in the libraries denied me of access to some records of TFD projects especially the Kisseman Project. With this lack of the documentary basis for exploration it becomes very difficult to obtain a non-biased assessment of the status ante. The next challenge was how to measure the impact (especially attitudinal changes) of the TFD project on the development partners. This assumes a difficult perspective when the context (environment and community) that is (very fluid and mobile) is closely examined. With these foundations firmly in place I proceed to make recommendations and suggestions that span my work and similar future projects, and the TFD practice in Ghana and as by SPA as a whole.
On the practical level it is realised that the uncomfortable association of TFD with the academic calendar creates a world of difference between concept and practice. I suggest that specific communities be adopted by SPA as the TFD pilot communities within which many students would be assigned jobs pertaining to aspects of TFD. Besides, students who work outside these communities can go ahead but the continuity needed in the pilot communities should be ensured through the subsequent batch of students. By this action the badly missing component of follow up can be effected even within the tight academic schedules although it will suppress the flexibility hitherto associated with the choice of lab sites.
Another perspective is for SPA to ensure that teaching end soon enough for the TFD major in the final year to have about six months without lectures so that they can live in the communities and have the flexibility to ensure great research work. This effects a successful transference, management and sustenance of TFD concept, form, and practice.
The issue of feedback is very important in any TFD project. It is by this that the masses are constantly updated on developments. The absence of this mechanism disassociates the project from its effect. In view of this I suggest that this feedback mechanism to be easily appreciated and understood must be packaged in a language (theatre) the masses have already shown deep understanding of. Hence the findings of the research stage after the solution implementation should equally result in a performance which will update the masses on issues. In this guise I suggest the encouragement of multiple performances.
Multiple performances are not against SPA TFD concept but not much encouragement is seen of its practice. Apart from the Kwasu Experience that comes close really very little examples can be cited. A pure exo theatre performance could be used as a tool of mobilisation to draw the masses together. After which the masses could easily be drafted into the concept and form. The usual performance of the situation could follow upon this later and could effect another performance of feedback and/or of difficulties being encountered before the last performance touched on earlier.
In this rather simplistically assumed format one can sight as many as four interactions (performances and open discussions) with the community. It is needless to say that these performances should go hand in hand with multiple plenary and other forms of communal discussions. The multiplicity however is dictated by the situation and not just by the desire to be multiple. In this wise the number of performances should suit the context. In this I assert that in the SPA context a lot of projects that needed multiple performances have ended up with one.
The above point feeds into yet another that is central to TFD- the active involvement and participation of the masses in the project. Much as the masses are encouraged to participate in the project, the nature of the approach used and the manner in which the project progresses only achieves a great participation during the performance and post performance stages. The suggestion is to ensure involvement should be from the onset till the end. In this wise I suggest that except in very tight contexts (as in Navro-pungu), the play rehearsal periods must be open to the community for their inputs and suggestions. This sets in motion a discussion of the issues among the masses. It awakens the masses to their plight and also to the usefulness of the project thereby 'de-concerting' it. The day of performance then brings them over to present well-thought-of opinions and findings on the issues and discussions already hinted on via the exposed rehearsal.
Another suggestion more closely related to the methodology and training of students is the need for emphasis to be placed also on the pre-situation analysis range of activities. Usually students virtually do very little besides finding the geographic location of the community and seeking sponsorship for the project. The need to draw a log framework, plan, seek medical conditioning, and physical conditioning among a host of silent activities should be stressed. During the situation analysis and data analysis period, an approach must be adopted that ensures the setting of indicators, benchmarks and any such means of codifying an existing situation to make measurement of change identifiable. The identification of change however small, minute or subtle guides the perfection of the TFD form and thus the act of community development.
The well of community development is rather deep for a parochial approach of a single perspective as usually identified in the presence of a facilitator who attempts to effect control and mastery over all aspects of social life. Indeed he draws in resource persons during the post performance discussion stage but this is rather delayed. The input of these technical experts should be solicited earlier. The suggestion then is to involve a wide range of experts from diverse but related fields during the situation analysis period to ensure a multi-sectoral approach to problem detection and solution finding. These experts wield the power to unearth the numerous potentials of these communities that will make life better for the community. In this agricultural, health, educational, religious, cultural and economic experts are likely to form the cocus of the facilitating team.
This may call for a seminar or any such gathering that will represent these varying fields to ensure a collaborative venture. SPA can achieve this through inter-departmental collaboration. The departments and fields that need inclusion depending on the context could be the Institute of Adult Education, Social Work Department, School of Performing Arts, the University of Development Studies, fields of Sociology, and Anthropology just to mention a few.
The above mentioned team need then to be thoroughly immersed into the dynamics of adult, mob, and rural/urban psychology to ensure a greater level of co-operation between the team and the masses. By this act the success of the project seems guaranteed. With the calibre of the coalition of experts suggested above, the project would certainly be expensive but indeed worthwhile. With such a coalition however it is relatively easier to get funding.
Funding is an indispensable part of any project and TFD is no exception. This notwithstanding comparatively TFD is the cheapest of all the mass media. In view of this it should be easier to access funding for these projects to successfully approach development from the right perspective. In this the students of TFD have been forthwith with the soliciting of funds from NGOs and other donor agencies. Usually because the students do not go the full length it gets more difficult for the agencies to disburse of funds without a report of significant changes.
There are situations in which the NGOs desperate need for a success story propels the student into a presentation of an inaccurate report. Many students opt out of reporting back until significant changes are made. These changes usually take a long time in coming. There is the need then for a platform for the students and the donor agencies to discuss issues of common interest after which considerable progress can be made with the realisation of the limitations and strengths of each other. In this quest SPA can be more instrumental as an institution. It can convene the meeting and secure funding for the student projects. Then the school ensures that the project is successfully carried out, sustained and reported on.
There is also the need for the TFD students to be assigned to NGOs and other institutions of community and rural development so that during holidays they could gain practical field experience from the NGO perspective. This will also engender the growth good fellowship between SPA and these organisations for funding as well as provide employment for the TFD and SPA graduates. The experience of the students is then appropriated for the upcoming TFD students through the submission of a report and a forum of discussions on experiences.
Yet another experience that is lacking among the milieu of TFD experiences is the comparative study of the implications of divergence and convergence of a project that examines a fishing community side by side a farming community. This would lift TFD to another level of analysis. I am eager to identify with the peculiarities and implications of a TFD project and any possible alliance of TFD with other mass media to tackle a community like Airport Residential Areas and Cantonments.
These suggestions and their implicit implications are the reflection of the several people I came into contact with in and out of the communities. These thus reflect the submissions of a wide range of individuals including the partners of development (facilitators, masses, and sponsors). It certainly has been tempered by my own analysis of the situation in Ghana. Indeed experiences outside have also aided my perspective of suggestions. It is my humble submission that these issues could be treated as the SPA TFD problem. A TFD Project could then be conducted that will effect implementation and solution. It is hoped that whatever form the addressing takes the solution of these would make the SPA TFD experience richer.